A record 774 people from 57 countries have been invited to join the Academy Of Motion Picture Arts And Sciences, an influx that will swell membership to around 8,500.

Among the new faces are veterans of the independent film world that include IM Global founder and CEO Stuart Ford, Lionsgate UK and Europe CEO Zygi Kamasa, FilmNation founder and CEO Glen Basner, Good Universe partner and head of international Helen Lee Kim, and Cornerstone Films co-founder Alison Thompson.

The list beat last year’s intake of 683 and according to the Academy comprises 39% females and 30% people of colour, two areas where the Academy has been vocal in its efforts to boost representation in light of the ongoing diversity drive across the industry.

Much of the criticism of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ recent efforts to broaden and diversify its membership — starting with 2016’s remarkable list of 683 invitees, and continuing with this year’s even farther-reaching roster of 774 — has suggested that all these sweeping initiatives will fatally water down the organization and send its high standards into irreversible decline.

That charge would be a dubious one even if the academy hadn’t just anointed one of its strongest best picture winners in recent memory with “Moonlight.” (That film’s writer-director-producer, Barry Jenkins, an Oscar winner for adapted screenplay, is one of this year’s least surprising invitees, along with producer Adele Romanski, actors Naomie Harris and Janelle Monáe, cinematographer James Laxton, editor Nat Sanders and composer Nicholas Britell.)

We will never know the precise effects of these broad membership shifts and the specific outcomes of any given Oscar year, and we shouldn’t have to. The reshaping of the academy’s membership into an image that better includes and represents the world’s top talents should be an admirable end in itself, regardless of which specific films, filmmakers and performers wind up taking home statuettes as a result.

And it is hard to look over the class of 2017 and not come away impressed by both the scale and the discrimination (I mean that in the good sense of the word) of the organization’s reach. The academy has insisted that it can broaden the membership without lowering its standards, and only an observer with little to no interest in the wider world of international cinema could possibly look at the two most recent sets of invitees and suggest that they amount to a failure of discernment.

uch of the criticism of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ recent efforts to broaden and diversify its membership — starting with 2016’s remarkable list of 683 invitees, and continuing with this year’s even farther-reaching roster of 774 — has suggested that all these sweeping initiatives will fatally water down the organization and send its high standards into irreversible decline.

That charge would be a dubious one even if the academy hadn’t just anointed one of its strongest best picture winners in recent memory with “Moonlight.” (That film’s writer-director-producer, Barry Jenkins, an Oscar winner for adapted screenplay, is one of this year’s least surprising invitees, along with producer Adele Romanski, actors Naomie Harris and Janelle Monáe, cinematographer James Laxton, editor Nat Sanders and composer Nicholas Britell.)

We will never know the precise effects of these broad membership shifts and the specific outcomes of any given Oscar year, and we shouldn’t have to. The reshaping of the academy’s membership into an image that better includes and represents the world’s top talents should be an admirable end in itself, regardless of which specific films, filmmakers and performers wind up taking home statuettes as a result.

And it is hard to look over the class of 2017 and not come away impressed by both the scale and the discrimination (I mean that in the good sense of the word) of the organization’s reach. The academy has insisted that it can broaden the membership without lowering its standards, and only an observer with little to no interest in the wider world of international cinema could possibly look at the two most recent sets of invitees and suggest that they amount to a failure of discernment.

The list reflects the Oscar-granting organization's ongoing efforts to diversify its membership.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has issued 774 invitations to new members, the Oscar-granting body announced Wednesday.

That number is more than the record 683 invitations that were issued in 2016 and well above the 322 invites that went out in 2015 as the Academy has made a concerted effort to diversify its membership ranks by bringing in more women, people of color and filmmakers from around the world.

The invitees to the acting branch alone — which numbered a whopping 105 — reflect the diversity the Academy has been pursuing. They include Avengers headliners like Chris Evans and Chris Hemsworth; Star Wars stalwarts like Adam Driver, Riz Ahmed, Domhnall Gleeson and Warwick David; box-office stars like Dwayne Johnson, Kristen Stewart and the newly crowned Wonder Woman Gal Gadot; Guardians of the Galaxy's Chris Pratt; comic performers like Leslie Jones, Keegan-Michael Key and Wanda Sykes; recent Oscar nominees like Viggo Mortensen, Naomie Harris and Ruth Negga; and even veteran show-biz legend Betty White, who, at the age of 95, is the oldest of the new invitees. The youngest invitee is Elle Fanning, at the age of 19.

The Academy reported that the list, which represents talent from 57 countries, is 39 percent female and 30 percent people of color. Seven of the Academy branches — actors, casting directors, costume designers, documentary, executives and film editors — invited more women then men.

Justin Timberlake, who brought down the house with his rousing opening performance of "Can't Stop the Feeling" from Trolls during February's Oscar broadcast, was also invited to join the club, as were Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda, an Oscar nominee for his song "How Far I'll Go" from Moana and singer-songwriter Nick Cave (Hell or High Water).

Oscars: Academy's Invitation List Is Well-Intentioned, But Misguided

Prominent among those invited to join the executives branch are Shari Redstone, vice chair of the board of directors of both Viacom and CBS; IM Global founder Stuart Ford; and FilmNation founder Glen Basner.

The directors branch — which invited 64 new members — welcomed best picture Oscar winner Moonlight's Barry Jenkins (who was also invited to join the writers branch), Lion's Garth Davis, Nocturnal Animals' Tom Ford and The Dressmaker's Jocelyn Moorehouse, as well as German helmer Fatih Akin (In the Fade), Chilean-born Alejandro Jodorowsky (El Topo), South Korea's Kim Ki-duk (3-Iron) and Hong Kong filmmaker Johnny To (Election). Jordan Peele (who was also invited by the writers) got tapped on the strength of his breakout hit Get Out. And brothers Anthony Russo and Joseph Russo (Captain America: Civil War) got a matching set of invites.

They weren't the only family members who were so recognized. Among the actors, Pratt and his wife Anna Faris (Brokeback Mountain) both got invites, as was the case for two other married couples: actors Carina Lua (Infernal Affairs 2) and Tony Leung (The Grandmaster), and Moonlight producer Adele Romanski and that film's cinematographer James Laxton. There were also a pair of sisters: Debbie Allen and Phylicia Rashad, both invited by the actors branch. And there was even a father and daughter-in-law: Indian actors Amitabh Bacchan (The Great Gatsby) and Aishwarya Rai Bacchan (Jodhaa Akbar).

In addition to Jenkins, Romanski, Laxton and Harris, other members of the Moonlight team who secured invitations included actress Janelle Monae, film editor Nat Sanders and composer Nicholas Britell. La La Land, Moonlight's main competition at this year's Oscars, was also well-represented. While director Damien Chazelle was invited to join the Academy in 2015, others behind the hit musical who were invited this year include Oscar-winning composer Justin Hurwitz and the winning songwriting team of Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, cinematography Oscar winner Linus Sandgren, production design Oscar winner David Wasco, sound mixer Steve A. Morrow and producers Fred Berger and Jordan Horowitz.

Those invited to join the documentary branch include Ezra Edelman, Oscar winner for O.J.: Made in America; recent nominees Gianfranco Rosi (Fire at Sea), Dan Krauss (Extremis) and the White Helmets team of Orlando von Einsidel and Joanna Natasegara; and veteran 94-year-old filmmaker Jonas Mekas.

The Academy’s diversity push began even before the nominations were announced in 2014 for the 86th Oscars, and a lack of minorities among the acting nominees led to the protest hashtag #OscarsSoWhite. But the resulting outcry, which only grew louder when the situation repeated itself in 2015, put added pressure on the organization to redouble its efforts. The most recent round of nominations recognized more people of color — including seven of the acting nominees — and winners included Jenkins’ best picture Moonlight, best supporting actor Mahershala Ali and best supporting actress Viola Davis.

At the beginning of 2016, the Academy’s 6,261 voting members were approximately 92 percent white and 75 percent male. Cheryl Boone Isaacs, who is just completing four one-year terms as president and will be stepping down next month since that is the maximum number of successive terms an Academy president can served, backed by the board of governors, vowed that the organization would double its number of women and diverse members by 2020. In order to meet that goal, the Academy has stepped up the number of new members it invites each year.

Each of the Academy's 17 branches draws up its own list of new members, and candidates must be sponsored by two members of the branch they will be invited to join. The basic requirement is that a candidate must have "demonstrated exceptional achievement in the field of theatrical motion pictures," although each branch then has its own specific requirements. Actors, for example, must have a minimum of three theatrical features under their belt, while directors must have a minimum of two helming credits. Academy Award nominees are automatically considered for membership, although an invite is not guaranteed.